Not only did Dean refuse to punish Syren for his antics during the summer of 2000. He rewarded them. Syren was announced as the #1 contender for the OCW Title. An announcement that current OCW Champion, Johnny Hunter did not agree with.
So, Hunter demanded out of his contract. The one legit star the company had. Dean’s backing of Syren had cost them a legend.
However, the OCW fans were being conditioned to cheer for the lawless. The reckless. The problematic. Syren’s numbers swelled in support. And Dean would only feed the growing monster.
Friday Night War
War has just ended. The crowd is going wild. Scott Syren emerges from a metallic rubble, ripping the OCW World Title away from Scruff. He’s covered in blood, sweat, and maybe piss. It’s Syren so we can never be too sure. The arena is frenzied. Chants of Syren block out all other noise.
Our view zooms from the ring, through the curtain, down the hallways and into Dean’s office. He has a phone to his ear and is pumping his fist, “The ratings look to be HOW HIGH? Fuck yea, sucka! Hey, before I let you go, I just have one thing to say. You’re welcome.”
Dean hangs up and leans back in his chair. The man is the physical epitome of satisfaction. He reaches for his phone, “Let me call Derek up. See if he’s ready to take a shot at the big leagues now.”
The phone rings. And it rings. And it rings. No answer. “Hmm, sucka must be busy keeping that loser teammate of his in line.”
Smith enters and Dean hangs up.
“Dean!”
“WHAT DID I SAY”
“Sorry, MR Dean!”
“That’s better. What’s got you running in here like a new season of Friends just started?”
“It’s official, sir. Johnny Hunter is leaving and he’s pissed about that cell collapsing. The manufacturers warned us it wasn’t ready yet…”
“Ah, fuck em. Did you hear that pop when that thing came crashing down?”
“I did but it isn’t safe! Hunter might be injured”
“Syren ain’t”
Smith is stressing, “Sir, I get that. But if we want to attract big names to this growing promotion we can’t give them the impression that the roof might collapse on them at any given moment. We need to seriously reconsider some of our protocols around here.”
Dean chews on this for a bit. But, again, the arena is rocking. “You hear that?” Smith nods. “As long as we’ve got that, we’re fine. We don’t need nothing else, sucka.”
It’s a really hard point to argue. But Smith has one more lifeline, “The locker room isn’t happy. They can’t stand Syren. They remember what happened to Y2James and know that on any given night one of them could be next.”
“Well, get those idiots in line!”
“I think there’s a potential solution. SiLVeRFReaK wants an OCW Title shot. The locker room is rallying behind him. If he can get that belt off Syren then I think we may avoid disaster.”
Dean thinks on SiLVeRFReaK. “He’s pretty over, yea. I guess he’s got morals.”
“Well he definitely isn’t going to snort heroin off the OCW Title.”
“haha oh Syren is the best, isn’t he?”
Smith has no response. The lack of laughter quiets Dean’s chuckle, “Fine. Let’s book it. If Freak can beat Syren then we’ll roll with him.”
FINALLY, a sigh of relief from Smith as he exits.
We cut away.
---
And we’re back with Cocco Ricci in front of the haunted house for some more dreaded, haunting exposition.
“Promise on the horizon. SiLVeRFReaK being given the chance to stand up for the OCW roster against the maligned, feared, and hated Scott Syren. And…”
Ricci delivers a dramatic pause as we see LCP emerge in the background, once more. Continuing to stumble around the grounds.
“Freak would dethrone the champion! Syren’s reign ended. His undefeated run vanquished. The locker room would go on to celebrate the historic win as SiLVeRFReaK, the locker room leader, freed them from the fear of facing a roided up, coked out maniac.”
LCP knocks on the side of the house for reasons nobody but LCP could possibly explain and his fist goes through the wall. He looks at his arm in the wall and snickers. That sure did break through there pretty fuckin easily.
“Dean had solved his problem, right? Wrong. Dean would force SiLVeRFReaK into a title defense only SIX days after his victory. And it would go down as the most controversial title match in OCW history.”
The expression on Pinkston’s face changes as he slowly pulls his hand out of the wall. He removes a piece of chain linked fence, the type you’d see from a broken down Hell in a Cell.
“Yes, just when you thought the curse had been stymied. Dean goes on and...hey, what is going on back there?” Ricci turns. His figure blinks and glitches. We see through him and spot LCP staring back at Cocco.
We cut away.
August 4th, 2000
An Arena Somewhere
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